The present invention is directed to an agricultural roller. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an agricultural roller that compacts objects into the soil to prevent damage to agricultural equipment such as haybines and the like.
Agricultural rollers have been used for many years to primarily compact tilled soil to prevent wind erosion and loss of moisture content. Conventional rollers are primarily constructed of a steel tube or pipe that is provided with a hitch mechanism so that the roller can be towed by a tractor. One of the primary disadvantages of a steel roller, however, is the relatively slow speed at which a steel roller can be towed. This is of special concern when attempting to economically move the roller between fields on paved roads at tractors speeds, which today average better that 20 mph.
Efforts have been made to overcome the disadvantages of steel rollers, for example, by mounting nonpressurized truck tires on a pipe that acts as a rim for the tires. The pipe can be filled with a ballast material, such as sand or water, to increase the weight of the roller. Alternatively, the tires themselves are filled with concrete or the like to increase the overall weight of the roller. Filling the tires with concrete, however, is not particularly desirable as this makes it difficult to replace a tire when worn, i.e., the entire tire and ballast must be discarded. Examples of such tire rollers, which are primarily intended for use on tilled fields, are described in an article entitled, "Look What They're Doing with Old Tires", Farm Show, Vol. 8, No. 5, 172-537, 1984.
While the above-described tire rollers overcome some of the deficiencies associated with steel rollers, they are not particularly suited for use in compacting rocky fields, and especially sod fields, such that rocks and other obstructions are pressed into the soil to prevent damage to other agricultural equipment, such as haybines, which subsequently pass over the field. The non-pressurized tires generally employed on the tire rollers, however, are flexible and have a tendency to roll over rocks and other obstructions without pressing the obstructions into the ground. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an agricultural roller capable of compacting rocks and other obstructions that did not suffer from the deficiencies of conventional agricultural rollers as described above.